I dislike Thanksgiving for a number of reasons – some principled and some personal – but for the people I love in spite of tradition, I usually abstain from speaking my mind during the holiday. Most holidays, in fact, but especially Thanksgiving. Novelly, I’m breaking my ‘tradition of buttoning it’, this year.

My opinion is that gratitude shouldn’t be ritualized. It’s absurd that, in a culture as obsessed as ours is with acquisition and ownership, we devote only one day a year to grace. And never mind that we dilute our One Thanks Day with a Black Friday chaser. Well, I say it’s absurd, but it makes sense given how we feel about stuff. I emphasize those words because they are unimportant.

There’s no point in my haranguing around the internet about this – whose behavior but mine can I affect, after all? Instead, I will buy into the New Year’s Resolution-esque tradition of broadcasting what I’m thankful for. It’s a bit, ‘If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em,’ I suppose, but not without twisting the ritual knife.

This year – as every year – I am thankful for what I don’t have. I’m lucky, now, to have few cruel people or ongoing catastrophes in my everyday life. Not all my friends can say the same, and I am especially grateful to them for putting up with my curmudgeonliness in the face of good fortune.

Now, in the spirit of good-natured subversion, please enjoy ViHart’s delicious One Thanks Day math videos.